Tree Trimming and Removal in Lowell

Tree Removal in Lowell, Indiana

Pro Tree Service has worked across Lake County since 1989. Lowell was incorporated in 1868, which makes it far older than most of the county’s suburbs. It also sits at the southern end, where subdivisions give way to farm ground. Those two facts shape the work. Tree removal in Lowell means genuinely old trees on the streets around Commercial Avenue, plus open-country wind exposure on the properties outside town.

The Oldest Street Trees in the County’s South End

A town incorporated in 1868 has had time to grow trees that nowhere else in Lake County can match. The older residential streets carry oaks, maples and elms planted by people who never saw them mature. Some of them are approaching the end of what their species can do.

Trees at that age need a different conversation than the fifty-year-old silver maples further north. A two-hundred-year-old oak with some deadwood in the crown is not necessarily failing. Oaks shed limbs as part of how they age, and a sound one can carry on for decades with periodic deadwood removal. The question is whether the structure underneath is intact. Therefore we would rather assess an old tree honestly and prune it than remove something that has stood for two centuries because it looks untidy.

Open Ground and Wind

South of town the land opens into working farmland across West Creek and Cedar Creek townships. The wind comes across it with nothing in the way. Trees that grew up in a farmyard or along a fencerow developed accordingly: wide, low, heavy limbs and a spreading habit, because nothing forced them upward.

The failures out here differ from suburban failures. Whole-tree windthrow is more common than limb drop. That holds particularly for trees that lost the shelter they grew up with when a neighboring windbreak came out or a building went up. Consequently old farmstead trees standing near newer houses are worth an inspection. The limbs they put out decades ago now hang over something that was not there at the time.

Farm and Acreage Work

A good share of the properties around Lowell are acreages rather than town lots, and the work reflects it. Fencerow clearing, dead timber in a windbreak, overgrown pasture edges, trees leaning over an outbuilding or a lane. We do land and lot clearing as well as individual removals. Moreover, on larger properties it is usually cheaper to do several trees in one visit than to bring a crew back three times.

Access is generally good on acreage, which works in your favor on price. Sometimes it does not: soft ground in spring, or a tree behind an outbuilding with no gate wide enough. We will say so when we quote rather than discovering it on the day.

Dead Ash

Emerald ash borer now reaches all 92 Indiana counties, and Lake County’s untreated ash is long gone. Around Lowell the problem shows up in fencerows and windbreaks as much as in yards. Dead ash in a fencerow tends to get left, because nobody is looking at it daily. Then it comes down across a fence line or a lane.

Ash killed by borer dries brittle. It releases limbs without the warning a living tree gives you. Indiana DNR and Purdue Extension both advise homeowners against taking dead ash down themselves, and we would put it more strongly. A dry ash is the most dangerous residential removal we do. Furthermore it gets more expensive every season, because once nobody can climb it safely it has to come down from a bucket or a crane.

Storm Work

When a significant wind or ice event moves through, the whole region calls in the same hour. We stage crews in the affected area rather than spreading them thin. Trees on occupied structures come first, then blocked driveways and access, then everything else. During a large regional event that can mean a wait. However, we will tell you honestly where you sit rather than promise a window we cannot hold. Our emergency and storm response page explains how we rank the calls.

Tree Services We Provide in Lowell

• Tree and bush removal, with full haul-away of trunk, brush and chips
• Assessment of mature and veteran trees before any removal decision
• Tree trimming and pruning to ANSI A300 standards — no topping, ever
• Deadwood removal from old oaks and maples
• Additionally, canopy elevation and canopy thinning
• Land and lot clearing, fencerows and windbreaks
• Stump grinding, four to eight inches below grade, deeper if you intend to replant
• Dead and hazardous ash removal
• Emergency storm response, seven days a week

Where We Work

We cover Lowell and the surrounding townships, in town and out on the acreages. We also work the neighboring communities of Cedar Lake and Crown Point, plus the rest of Lake County.

Get a Free Estimate

Tell us the address and what you are looking at. An ISA Certified Arborist comes out, gives you a written price, and tells you honestly whether the tree can be saved rather than removed. Estimates are free, any day of the week.

Call 708-424-5885 or request an estimate online. For a tree on a structure or a vehicle, call rather than filling in a form.